The School Target
by Evera Yuuki
Summary: When Amarillo del Bosque Verde is required by law to enroll in Kanto Trainer's School, there are already a few things wrong. One, she doesn't own a Pokémon. Two, she doesn't know anything about them. And three, she's become the target of every bully in school. The only good part is the raven haired boy that sits near her, but can she get over her fears for her crush, or be crushed?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first shot at Pokémon fics whatsoever. I've been a Pokéfan since I could hold a Gameboy, and it's part of what made me want to get into a bit of art. My drawing skills weren't great, but it eventually led me to realize that art isn't just about lines and color, which is why I'm a writer today. Lately I've been rereading the manga, partially for enjoyment, but I quickly realized that part of the charm of Pokémon is the shades they're depicted in, the different colors that both give them life and help identify them (for example, most water types are bluish, such as Squirtle or Mudkip) and I noted that there was no such thing as Pokémon Adventures (or Pokéspecial, if you so prefer) in color.**

**When it dawned on me that nobody wanted to change that fact, I (having some intermediate art skills with layers and helping a friend do her own manga for color publishing on dA) decided I'd do something bold and go where nobody had yet dared to go. I began doing Pokémon Adventures in color. I'll update my profile to link to the project. I've been way busy between school work and writing muses so I'm only to page 5, but I'll keep working on it. In any case, I've been yammering far too long, time to start the actual fic! ~Evera Yuuki**

* * *

Yellow shifted uncomfortably. She'd just transferred to Kanto Trainer's School after a law was passed dictating all children between the ages of nine and sixteen were required to attend a Pokémon trainer school due to an increase of severe accidents involving unenlightened trainers. She'd never been to any sort of school in her life, let alone trainer school, and she didn't even own a Pokémon! Sure, her house was in the deepest part of the Viridian Forest and could be considered dangerous, but no Pokémon had ever tried to harm her, even though they all terrified her. Maybe if she had parents, they'd comfort her and make her less frightened. But her parents were dead, her uncle was in Johto for the next year or so, and she lived all alone, though nobody knew it.

What was scaring her more than Pokémon or loneliness, however, was her standing in front of a room full of kids that all looked older than her. A tall, stern woman that claimed to be her teacher was writing out her full name. Amarillo del Bosque Verde. She never liked her real name much, so she told everyone around her that it was Yellow, but she had to put down her real name for registration. Uncle Wilton had paid the registration fees for her, but they put her on something called "Financial Aid", which apparently let her eat the food here for free. Unfortunately, it didn't get her new clothes, thus she was wearing her old black shirt and lavender pants with a simple orange-brown smock with lime green edges over the top. Her shoes were simple hide boots that came up about mid-calf. The appearance was finished off with her long blonde hair in a high ponytail bound with a red band.

"Ms. del Bosque Verde will be joining us for this school year, so be sure to learn her name. Amarillo, please take the fourth seat in the third row," The teacher commanded. She approached the seat, which lay between a carrot-haired girl with pigtails and a boy with the blackest hair she'd ever seen that spiked up wildly, and dark red eyes. Just as she was almost to the seat, however, somebody swung their leg out and she tripped, falling to the ground face-first with a _thunk_. Yellow could hear the kids all laughing at her and her face instantly turned crimson.

"Ms. del Bosque Verde, refrain from such ridiculousness. This is a school, not a comedy house." She'd never been so mortified in her life and she wanted to cry, to run and hide herself in the arms of her forest until the trees soothed her embarrassment, but that was no longer an option. She timidly sat in her designated seat instead. The carrot-haired girl was still snickering at her, shooting a glance towards her right, but she couldn't bear to look to where the raven haired boy was seated, because she didn't want to know whether he was laughing too. Instead, she timidly sat in her designated seat, refusing to look up from her desk top in fear she might start crying.

"Now, how many of you know and understand the different Types of Pokémon?" Everyone but her raised their hand. There were types of them?

"Who can name each Type? Amarillo?" Yellow's eyes widened. She had to name them? She didn't even know how many there were!

"I-I...I don't know any..." The class began to laugh at her again, and suddenly her desk became the most interesting thing in the world.

"You live surrounded by Pokémon but you can't name a single Type? How quaint. Who can tell me?" She heard the slight _whoosh_ of hands flying up to answer, but still she wouldn't,_ couldn't_ look up. She could feel tears stinging the corners of her eyes. Suddenly, she's hit on the hand harshly.

"This is a lesson it seems only you do not know, and I expect you to learn it! Being new is not an excuse for spacing out!" It was too much. Without even thinking, she shoved the woman harshly and ran out of the room. It took until she was halfway out of the school to realize she was crying.

* * *

**A/N: Aaand that's chapter 1. Let me know if I screwed up any terms in here. I know Yellow's house is near the edge of the forest and Viridian City, but bear with me, I'm going somewhere with all this. For those who are curious, it was Misty who tripped Yellow. She doesn't know that yet, but she'll find out soon ;) ~Evera Yuuki**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So I know chapter one was a little dark for a first chapter, but I do intend to have a happy ending to this simply because I'm a sucker for happy endings. I think Disney has corrupted me with their happily ever afters. Oh well, might as well get going with the next chapter, eh? -Evera Yuuki**

* * *

Yellow was still crying by the time she was out of Viridian City and she had collapsed sobbing just a few yards into the forest. She couldn't go back. She couldn't face all that again, she just couldn't.

Suddenly there was a deep groan-like sound from behind her. She turned to be met face to face with one of her fears: a Pokémon. It was a blue, serpentine Pokémon with a regal air to it. But Yellow could already tell this refined looking Pokémon was anything but regal as it growled at her. Was she going to die here? In this one place in the world she could feel safe?

Without thinking, she curled up against a tree trunk and tried to block the raging Pokémon with her forearms...but nothing happened. Cautiously she lowered her arms just enough to peek out and see why it hadn't attacked yet. In that split second of her lowering her guard, it attacked. It had been waiting for her to drop her guard to attack! She really was going to die here! As she watched on in horror, she could hear what sounded like a violent sneeze and lightning leapt through the air. As the Pokémon fell over, behind it stood the raven haired boy from school. Had he just attacked her? Or was he her savior? Suddenly she couldn't focus on anything. The world blurred and quickly went black. The last thing she heard was a boy's voice.

* * *

When the new girl Amarillo first walked into his classroom his heart stopped. He'd heard stories of a little girl living in Viridian Forest and he was certain he'd caught a glance of her once. Not only had she been real, but she'd been put in his class!

She was pretty, too. Her clothes looked pretty ragged from use but the simple clothing complemented her small form and her long blond hair in a high ponytail was enough to make his heart flutter a bit.

When he saw Misty trip her he could tell right off she'd been upset. So when Misty turned to conspiratorially snicker to him, he'd instead answered with a glare. Misty wasn't usually like this.

The poor girl looked ready to cry, and when she didn't raise her hand in response to the teacher he realized she didn't know anything about Pokémon. Come to think of it, he didn't see any Pokéballs with her either...

The teacher had lashed out when she'd lowered her head in seemingly shame, and before anyone could react she'd shoved the teacher away from her and ran out crying.

The scene actually reminded him of when Poli was still a poliwag and he'd been bullied constantly. When Poli evolved, the bullying ceased, but this Amarillo girl didn't have that option. But he could help her catch one! Yes, that'd surely help!

As soon as he could get a pass to the bathroom he snuck out of the building. He'd never left school like this, but he'd also never wanted to help someone so badly either.

It took no time at all to get out of the city and on the edge of the forest. After a few feet he could hear a slight whimpering. Apparently she hadn't gotten very far. He froze, however, when he was met with the back of a large Dratini. It looked unusually mean and he could only conclude Team Rocket had been experimenting on the poor thing. He could almost make out a small figure hunched up across from it and he realized quickly what was happening. This Dratini was going to attack someone! Within seconds he'd called out Pika and attacked. It only took one Thundershock to take the dragon Pokémon down, much to his surprise.

"Hey, are you alright?" The figure behind the enraged Dratini was in fact the girl he sought out to help. She'd fainted half a second later, much to his horror. Realizing he wouldn't make it back to school any time soon, he moved her into a more comfortable spot, a relatively flat area covered in moss, and pulled out his PokéNav. His mom would know what to do.

* * *

When Yellow awoke again, there was a cool object over her forehead and someone's jacket over her. She couldn't recall what happened very well, but it was warm and comforting here and she hadn't been taken care of like this for years.

"Hey, are you okay? You nearly got smashed by a Dratini..." There was a mess of black hovering over her. As her vision slowly adjusted, she realized with a shock that the figure above her was in fact the boy from class. But why is he here?

"Gyaah!" She shot up, embarrassed, only for him to gently push her back down. The sudden movement scrambled her brain and everything was swimming.

"Hey, take it easy! You're gonna hurt yourself!" She blearily noticed the thing over her head was in fact a small towel as the boy was taking it off to dip it in something. A moment later he was wringing it out from what looked like water.

"Here, this'll help," he said gently as he replaced the fresh cloth. The cold made her shiver a bit at first, but it felt really nice.

"Th-thank you..." She murmured softly. She'd never been obsessed over like this since her parents were alive and she'd get sick from trying to drink lake water or eat tree bark. It felt nice to be concerned about again.

"How come you didn't battle that Dratini?" He asked.

"Battle?" She honestly didn't know much of anything outside of her forest. The moment she asked she regretted it when his face twisted in disbelief.

"You've never seen a Pokémon Battle?"

"No...I've lived in this forest my whole life, and not many trainers come near my house, so I don't know much about catching or raising Pokémon. There's a lot I don't even know about Pokémon themselves..." She was really nervous. What would he think about her ignorance?

"That's alright. I didn't know what a Pokémon was until Dad brought home a Poliwag."

"Poliwag? What's that one like?"

"It looks like a tadpole, kinda. Oh! Here, check this out!" He pulled out a red box and flipped it open. It lit up, showing tiny pictures of Pokémon, some of them with red and white dots next to them. "This is called a PokéDex, it records stuff on Pokémon when I see them. I get more information if I catch them. Hold on a sec...here he is, number 60. That's Poliwag." It was a navy blue disc-like Pokémon with a swirl on its belly and, like he said, looked a lot like a tadpole. It was really cute, surprisingly.

"That one's super cute! That's Poliwag?"

"Yep! He was my first Pokémon, and I never leave him behind! We used to play in the pond near my house, and my dad got him for me!"

"I've never played with a Pokémon, they kinda scare me..." He blinked.

"Pokémon aren't scary, not really. It's the owners that are the bad ones. That Dratini that attacked you did it because bad people that call themselves Team Rock experimented on it. I saw a Gyarados once that did the same thing. It's not their fault, they're only mad because they were treated bad and then left out in the wild, so they think everyone must be bad. Some of them were people's Pokémon that they stole!" She gasped.

"That's horrible..." She never considered why the Pokémon never bothered her. Maybe they really aren't as bad as she thought.

"Do you have a Pokémon?"

"No... I don't know how to catch one and they always get away when I try put a leash on them." He laughed. Did she say something dumb?

"You can't leash a Pokémon, silly! You gotta use a Pokéball! Want me to show you?" She hesitantly nodded. "Here, then," he said, handing her two red and white spheres, "these are Pokéballs. One of them has my Pokémon Pika and the other's empty. Let's find a Pokémon!" He led her through to a spot with a lot of weeds that have grown way high. "We call this stuff tall grass. Pokémon like it in here, or caves, or water too. It's all about what kind it is, or Type. Pika here is an Electric Type, so he can shoot out lightning and stuff, but he's really nice. Take his ball and press the white button, so he can come out." Carefully she tapped the button, startled when a white light formed. The light shot out and moved around until it made the shape of a Pikachu. The light faded and there stood a Pikachu, sitting on its hind legs and looking at them curiously.

"Pika, this girl doesn't have a Pokémon. Will you help her catch one?" The yellow mouse gave a small cry of agreement and hopped over to her. She cautiously crouched down and held her hand out, and after a gentle sniff, it rubbed its head into her palm and she gently petted it.

"Wow, looks like he likes you! All I got my first time was a good zap, but I guess it's because I dragged him away from those tasty apples he was trying to steal."

"He sure is soft for such short hair. He's a boy, then?"

"Yep! I nicknamed him Pika. I like to give my Pokémon nicknames. I call my old Poliwag, he's a Poliwhirl now, but I call him Poli. When you find one, you can call it anything you want!"

As they wandered through the tall grass, a purple rat-like Pokémon jumped out.

"Hey, that's a Rattata! They run around near my town, they've got super strong teeth! One bit me once, but that's only 'cause I tried to carry it around by its tail, and it didn't bite hard. It was just saying "I don't like that", but I bet you'll take good care of any Pokémon you catch!" The black haired boy was really enthusiastic. He must really like Pokémon.

"So I just throw this at it?" He shook his head.

"Nope, ya gotta weaken it first. Try telling Pika to tackle it. Hurry, he's waiting for you to give him a command!"

"Uh, t-tackle!" She stuttered. The Pikachu sped forward, smashing into the Rattata and making it dizzy.

"Now that it's weakened, you can toss the Pokéball. You can do it!" She tossed the empty ball forward, and just before the Pokéball hit it in the face, the lid flew open and the Rattata was pulled in with the same white light Pika's ball had given off. The lid snapped shut, plopped on the ground where the Rattata was, and wobbled about as if it was trying to break out, and the button was flashing red. After a few seconds, the shaking stopped and it gave a final flash with a click. The boy cheered.

"Great job, you caught it! Go pick up your new Pokémon!" She gently picked up the ball and peered in. The Rattata was staring up at her from the inside, shrunken down to fit inside the ball.

"It's so little now! It's kinda cute like that." He smiled at her newfound excitement.

"My name's Red, by the way. I live over in Pallet Town, it's south of Viridian City. Your name's Amarillo, right?"

"It's my birth name, yeah, but I never really use it. My family's always called me Yellow."

"That's a pretty name, but Amarillo's cool too. It sounds so different than most people's names. It's whatever you prefer, though."

"I prefer Yellow. My family isn't even Spanish, and they both mean the same thing."

"I'm glad I got to meet you, Yellow! I haven't made any new friends this year, and I'm happy I could help you catch your own Pokémon!" She already liked this boy Red. Maybe school won't be as terrible as she'd first thought.

* * *

**A/N: So I think this fic is forming rather nicely. I've never liked Misty all that much, personally. She was a bit nuts to begin with (trying to murder Red in the middle of the night) and when I saw little Yellow the first time, Misty lost. Didn't even know if she'd come back in at any point and she'd already won me over. She's such a little sweetheart! -Evera Yuuki**

**Post-Edit: So this didn't launch when I'd intended (read: yesterday) because there was a massive outage from our internet provider. Even the TV was down and I couldn't get this uploaded on time. Sorry about that, guys.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So I'm just so Pokémon'd up lately, I've been replaying the games and earlier today I was working on the color version. I noticed though that it seems someone's beating me to it on the color copies, but I honestly can't find the full thing, but the farthest panel I've seen is at the end of the Yellow Arc. I'm trying my best to find it, but in the meantime I'll keep writing like crazy! -Evera Yuuki**

* * *

The next day, Yellow found she was actually looking forward to going to school. When she walked through the door and into the redheaded girl, however, that quickly vanished.

"So you're the girl Red skipped school for? Hmph. You look like an idiot. No idea about what you're doing, do you? I could see your face yesterday, when Ms. Agatha called you out. For a girl living in a forest full of Pokémon you're pretty stupid. Red shouldn't waste his time on an idiot like you." Yellow was shocked. Why did this girl hate her so? Is her ignorance despicable to her?

"Hey, Misty, leave Amarillo alone!" A brunette girl with ocean blue eyes ran up, yelling at the orange haired girl angrily. "You're always so mean to the girls just 'cause they're not gym leaders! It's not her fault she doesn't know anything yet! That's what school's for, isn't it?"

"Blue. This.." The redhead sneered at her, "Amarillo...she lives in the Viridian Forest. Didn't you hear her last name? Del Bosque Verde is a family name from Viridian Forest, but she knows as much about Pokémon as a pile of rocks." Every word this Misty girl said made her feel even stupider and self-loathing was bubbling up inside her.

"Do you ever pull your head out of your butt and listen to the news? The del Bosque Verde family was killed by a crazy arsonist. If Amarillo is one of them, she'd have been far too young to have much knowledge on Pokémon!" She'd heard enough. To have somebody know so much about her even though all she wanted was for everyone to forget...

In moments she was running back out the door. One boy wasn't enough to hold her to such a terrible place. If the adults come to take her away, that wouldn't matter. Anything but that cruel Misty girl!

* * *

When Red made it to school, Yellow was running outside and crashed into her. Before he could ask if she was okay, she scrambled onto her feet and continued to run.

"Ah! Yellow-!" She had disappeared by the time he turned around and he couldn't even tell to where. Hoping she just forgot something, he hesitantly continued inside. He just barely turned the corner in time to see Blue slap Misty across the face hard.

"Blue! You can't just hit people like that!" He'd never seen her so furious, though. What happened here..?

"This brat deserves it! Treating Amarillo like that! She made her run out crying!"

"Crying..? No, Misty's not like that! You had to have heard her wrong!"

"You can't hear somebody call another an idiot wrong. She was absolutely terrible to the poor girl because she isn't a child prodigy like her!" Blue looked like slapping wasn't the only thing she wanted to do to Misty. Would Misty really treat someone so poorly? Well, Yellow was running pretty fast, and she wouldn't look up either...

Without giving it another thought, he rushed out to find Yellow. Who knows what she'd do in a state like this?

* * *

She couldn't go back now. She'd already made her decision. She really liked Red, but she couldn't take that constant bashing. She was already struggling living on her own, having to bury her parents, her uncle leaving her all alone in a forest full of creatures that terrified her. To have to take such abuse day after day...she couldn't do it.

"Yellow! Hey, Yellow! Where are you?!" That's right...Red and Misty were friends, weren't they? He'd never believe her if she told him what happened. Maybe she should just stay in her forest after all. Nobody would have to know she existed...

A rustling from the brush nearby cut her thoughts short when Red stumbled into the clearing she was curled up in.

"Blue told me what Misty said...I'm so sorry, she's never acted like this before. If I'd known she'd said all that..." Yellow didn't bother to glance up. What was the point? He was probably giving her a look of pity. She didn't want pity, even from him.

"Hey...cheer up, Yellow!" She couldn't stop herself from looking up at him in shock. "You're a lot prettier when you're smiling. I don't blame you for being upset. That was way mean, even if you're an adult." She was staring at him blankly. "Is there something on my face?"

"Nobody's...said anything like that to me...ever..." She was split between shock, joy, and an urge to cry hysterically. Nobody but her parents had ever called her pretty. She was always the freaky forest girl, for as long as she could remember.

"Well, first times are always the best, right? You got your first Pokémon too, and as long as you treat him nice, he'll always be your best friend no matter what you look like or how much you know. So cheer up a bit!" He was making faces now, trying to make her laugh. Her new Rattata called itself out of its Pokéball as well, curling up in her lap in an attempt to comfort her.

"Th-thank you..." Yellow could feel a tiny smile sneaking up on her, and she let it. He held out his hand with a carefree grin.

"C'mon, let's head back to the school. Imagine the teacher's when she finds out you've got your own Pokémon!" Red's smile was contagious, and she could feel her own growing as she took his outstretched hand. She recalled her Rattata (with a bit of help from Red) and they walked back towards the school, holding hands without a thought.

* * *

__**A/N: So I've been on an overall hiatus because I've found myself, embarrassingly, addicted to otome games on the iPod. Now I can't peel myself from them and everything's went to the back seat. ^/^ I don't even regret it~! -Evera Yuuki**


End file.
